Editor’s note: Aurora Public Schools originally planned to launch its free food and lunch program Wednesday, but has since committed to opening locations Tuesday.
AURORA | Many Aurora kids rely on schools not just for classroom learning but for social services and regular meals — posing a problem for school districts shutting schools down to help contain COVID-19.
To make sure students don’t go hungry, both Aurora Public Schools and the Cherry Creek School District will provide free breakfast and lunch for all students under the age of 18. Both school districts extended their regularly-scheduled spring break for another week, keeping students out of school at least until March 30.
APS will launch its free food program Tuesday. Aurora families will be able to locate a food service location nearest to them throughout the district and pick up food. Follow this link for a list of meal distribution sites and times.
Cherry Creek will provide every student with free breakfast, lunch and a book starting March 20. The district will only provide that food on weekdays and through Friday, March 27, although it may extend the program. Families will be able to choose from 11 sites around the district so far, mostly elementary schools. See the full list of locations here.
The district said on its website it is also planning to collaborate with food banks to keep families fed.
APS and Cherry Creek schools staff did not immediately provide cost assessments for the free meal programs.
“This has kind of been an unprecedented situation,” said Stephanie Perez-Castillo, a policy analyst at Colorado Children’s Campaign focused on childhood nutrition issues.
Many school districts have food programs during the summer for low-income students, but Perez-Castillo couldn’t recall a time in Colorado when district staff handed out bagged lunches during the school year. She compared the initiatives to those in Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina in 2004.
According to Perez-Castillo, Colorado schools serve up 235,000 lunches every day to students who might otherwise not have access to that meal — amounting to 38.3 million lunches each year throughout the state. Kids go to school even when they are sick or bullied to eat, she said.
“It’s just not obvious to people that don’t have to deal with it,” she said.
The free food programs are especially important for Aurora students even outside of crisis situations.
In Aurora Public Schools — covering much of north and central Aurora and some 40,000 students — about 26,000, or three-quarter of its students, already qualify for free or reduced-priced lunches because of low household incomes, compared to the state average this year of 41 percent.
In Cherry Creek schools, which covers much of south Aurora and other cities, about 12,000 of its 56,000 students qualify, or about 30 percent.
Perez-Castillo said the Colorado Department of Education is working to secure waivers from federal agencies allowing districts to legally provide lunches even if they don’t pass nutritional guidelines and other requirements.
Bruce Wilcox, president of the Aurora Education Association teacher union for APS, said food access was a big factor when district leadership made the difficult decision to close schools.
“That’s a consideration that APS leadership had to make,” he said. “I think that they’ve already recognized that. They have said they will start distributing food later this week.”
But he noted schools are also crucial hubs for low-income families to get access to health care and mental health supports. Both APS and Cherry Creek schools have devoted millions of dollars this year to get more mental health staff like psychologists, social workers and therapists into their schools.